I walked into my office; it’s pretty dull from my angle. Rick Raker is my name; I solve crime mysteries as a job. I walked over to the little window at the back of my office and looked out. Outside was dark and it was not winter. Across my street was the baker’s, to my left a restaurant and to my right another house. A creak. I looked back into my office to find the cabinet leaning over. Slam, the shelf full of files, crashed nosily to the ground, and then the cabinet did the same and then my desk. I walked over to the mirror; it was cracked in several places, maybe because a Mr Canister, an ugly dark haired man, had looked in it. In the mirror I could see a tall someone with blonde hair, blue eyes, slim nose, a fag in his mouth, a long grey coat reaching his ankle, black shoes, creased shirt and black tie. If the person and been a woman, she would have had men running after her, but it was a man, well it could be me being reflected I’m too handsome.

I looked back at my office. The walls were black-I don’t know why they are black- with wanted people posters on it. There was one wooden chair, suppose to be two chairs but I couldn’t find the second one, a coat stand, pack of fags on the floor, a telephone, a box of tissues on the broken table. I was so poor I could not afford to buy a hat. I’m so sad.

“Ouch!” a naked wire from my broken lamp had touched my bare leg, I was so stupid that I had left my broken lamp on. No wonder the bills were so high.

The door screamed as it was flung open.

“Rick, Rick. Help me. I need you. I need your help,” cried Jayne Bland as she ran in.

Jayne Bland was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She used to be a cheap journalist, and then all of a sudden she was something else she now had all the things that a modern woman would wish for. Jayne Bland had obsidian hair, hazel eyes, red, really red lips. She had finally caught the eye of criminal Snacky Lammar, who had asked her on a date and she accepted. She had worn make- up but tears had washed it away and now her face was just ugly. Her black dress that she had worn had been torn in several places. Around her neck was a necklace of onyx and pearls but some of the pearls were missing.

“What’s happened, Jayne doll?” I enquired.

“Take a sit,” I continued.

“I can’t, the chair’s gone,” replied Jayne.

I looked at the spot where my only one chair should be the only thing I saw was just pieces of wood apparently the chair had completely rotted away.

“Okay, then sit on the shelf,” I said.

She sat and bowed her head in dismay, and then she began.

“Well, after a month of dating Snacky, we decided to get married…” Jayne looked at me and instantly saw my surprised face.

“Yes I know. It was a little bit fast, but we were in love. Anyway, today was exactly four months after our marriage and I’m pregnant. So Snacky decided to throw a party onboard a ship.”

“You’re pregnant? Just four months after the wedding?” I asked with a surprised tone.

“Yes I am. Anyway I agreed with the idea of a party. Snacky went on board first to check if everything was all right and about five minutes, the ship exploded. I was thrown backwards and when I stood up the ship was in flames and then I knew that… th-that….” She broke into tears.

I knew the rest already.

“ So what do you want me to do for you?” I asked.

“I want you to find out who killed Lammar and why?”

“For how much. You didn’t think I worked for free, did you.”

“No! I’ll give you £100, per day.”

“£150.”

“Deal.”

Jayne stood up, walked from side to side as if she was drunk, opened the door and walked out.

I knew where to begin with my search. The ship, well not really a ship anymore, just a piece of debris.

The first thing I noticed when I got there was a pair of black, high heeled shoes with milky pearls on them both definitely Jayne’s no one else could afford one of these kind of shoes. But I had thought that Jayne had lost them when running to me. I also saw fragments of her dress but with yellow, violet and green powder on them. I hadn’t really paid attention in my science classes so I don’t know what the powders were. I sent it to one of my friends, a scientist, to find out what the powders were.

Next I went to the late Mr Lammar’s house, well a castle really. The place was enormous, larger then Windsor Castle. From the look of the outside wall, the castle was around a century old. It had more windows than the castle that Queen Elizabeth lives in. it’s pillars had carvings of ivy leaves on. The outside walls of the castle were grey. Around the castle itself were overgrown bushes. The doors were craved from mahogany wood. The doors were open, so I walked in. inside the castle was magnificent, well only the reception that I was in. on the ceiling were four chandeliers and other things that I could not afford even if I had £1,000,000, like a carven image of a dragon seven foot tall and carved from mahogany teeth and claws of platinum, eyes of emerald and tail opal. I left the reception room and looked for a drawer. I found one. Again it was carved from mahogany. I opened a chest and found £4,000. I stashed it in my pocket immediately. I opened the second chest and found what I was looking for a letter a will to be precise. And it basically said that when Lammar died all his money would be passed onto his family and in this case his wife. I was pretty close to finding out who killed Lammar and why. Now the only thing I needed was the results of the powder from my friend.

I waited for the results for the results to come and they finally did. Apparently the powders that I had found on “ Jayne’s black dress” were residue of a bomb, a bomb big enough to blow up a ship. Now I knew why and who killed Lammar. I called Jayne and told her to come in five minutes. She came and was looking rather nervous.

“So you’ve given up the case?” said Jayne with an expression of hope faintly visible on her face.

“No in fact I’ve solved it,” I replied.

“Have you?” Jayne gulped, ”So soon.”

“Yes. The person left a lot o evidence,” I looked up at Jayne, “It was you Jayne wasn’t it you set the bomb on the ship for five minutes after Snacky went onboard. I found that out from the bomb residue on your dress. You killed him for the money I found that out from the will you forgot to hide. You couldn’t wait for him to die could you? You came to me so that no one would suspect that you killed Lammar by making it look like you wanted justice for your husband.”

Jayne stunned me by replying.

“So I did kill him,” she said coldly. She reached into her black handbag, took out a black gun. She was going to shoot me.

“I’ll never go to prison,” she said. Boom! Bam! Boom!

I opened my eyes; I had closed them, and saw Jayne lying on the floor blood running down from her belly and head. Jayne had shot herself in the belly and head and died instantly. I walked over to her, snatched her handbag from her lifeless hands, opened it and took out all the money I could find which was about £500,000, now I was really rich. I dropped the bag picked up my phone and called the police.

The funeral was two days later. Lammar and Jayne were buried side by side and on the same day. Only relatives of Jayne visited and according to them Jayne had committed suicide.

The castle of Lammar was sold to me; I had used the money I had acquired from Jayne’s purse. From then on I lived a happy life until the case of who killed the chief inspector’s daughter.